Published: April 29, 2008 10:49 pm            

de la BASTIDE: NASCAR should park reckless Lepage a few races

Indy 500 gearing up for Month of May

To err is human, to forgive divine is a famous quote from Alexander Pope but it’s doubtful many NASCAR drivers will be willing to forgive Kevin Lepage.

Lepage made one of the biggest blunders in the history of auto racing during the Nationwide race last Saturday at Talladega.

I can recall ARCA driver Dave Cooksey hitting the pace car and Kevin Cogan’s blunder at start of an Indianapolis 500 that took out several contenders including Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt.

For those who didn’t see the incident, Lepage was exiting pit road and instead of blending in Turn 2, pulled up into the racing groove entering Turn 1 with the lead pack bearing down on his car.

When Lepage pulled up onto the track, the leaders started scurrying to miss his race car. Carl Edwards slammed into the back of Lepage’s car, ripping the back half of the car off and starting a multi-car crash.

After the incident Lepage didn’t accept blame for the accident and commented that the other drivers should have seen his car and missed it. He noted that several cars passed him before the crash. The problem was behind the lead draft the cars were running side by side.

A replay showed Lepage’s spotter was warning him the lead pack was approaching and to stay below the blend line. The last words heard by the spotter were “Oh no.”

Unfortunately the ESPN broadcast team did a terrible job in clearing up a controversy. At the drivers’ meeting, officials told the drivers to blend coming off the second corner, but there was an indication the spotters were told something else.

The ESPN announcers never cleared up the possible differing information provided to the drivers and spotters.

Lepage did issue an apology on Sunday stating acknowledging that he made an error and caused the big crash.

“In over 25 years of racing this was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made behind the wheel of a stock car and I promise that it will not happen again,” Lepage said.

Lepage also realizes that it will take a long time to gain the respect of the other drivers, team owners, NASCAR officials and the fans.

As of Tuesday there has been no indication of whether or not Nationwide Series officials are going to penalize Lepage for the error. My first thought was that Lepage should be suspended for several races and I still believe some type of suspension is justified.

During the Nationwide Series race there was another scary incident that had to have fans, competitors and officials scratching their collective heads.

Dario Franchitti cut a tire, hit the outside wall and spun down the track coming to a stop on the apron. With his car at a stop, Larry Gunselman slammed into the driver’s side door. The crash resulted in a fractured left ankle for Franchitti.

The real question is why didn’t Gunselman slow down before hitting Franchitti’s Dodge and why didn’t his spotter tell him to go high? With the banking at Talladega, almost any car involved in a crash will come to rest on the bottom of the track.

Both of these hard hits could have been avoided. Maybe Gunselman should be issuing his own apology.

In other racing news

• Activity at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway begins this Sunday with rookie orientation. If the Indiana weather cooperates it should be a good Month of May leading up to the Indianapolis 500.

With five races completed in the Indy Racing League season there have been five different winners — Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal, Danica Patrick, Will Power and Dan Wheldon.

• Former Formula One competitor Scott Speed scored his first-ever stock car racing victory with the ARCA Series at Kansas Speedway last weekend.

The ARCA ReMax Series will be competing this Sunday at the recently reopened North Carolina Motor Speedway, better known as “The Rock.” I hope there is a good crowd on hand for the race that was closed in 2004 when NASCAR moved its two race dates to other facilities. The race will be broadcast live on the Speed channel starting at noon.

Ken de la Bastide may be reached at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com or (765) 454 -8580.

        

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